We were the orphans of suburban slums Raised by retail clerks and food court bums Our parents were away under fluorescent suns to give us what they never had We were the children of the broken glass where the parking lots yield to yellow grass We lodged our broomsticks in the pavement cracks and we flew our scarlet flags
And we wrapped rebellion’s arms around our waists And we held our hearts out for the world to taste And injustice was meant for our hands to erase And you know we had a lot of work to do
We are the siblings of an endless war, which our elders wage on distant shores We whined and kicked and screamed upon the kitchen floor and we threatened to run away We are the children of the hourglass; our ambitions fell like grains of sand We waited for the echoes of our protest chants so we could hear our own decay
We sang through riot barricades And our voices bled, they bled onto the tape We can hear it when those records play And we know it’s the sound of our own decay It’s the sound of our decay It’s the sound of our decay It’s the sound of our decay
And we pulled rebellion’s arms from round our waists And we hid our hearts to shield them from disgrace And injustice laughed aloud and rubbed it in our face So you know we’ve got a lot of work to do We’ve got a lot of work to do We’ve got a lot of work to do We’ve got a lot of work to do